{"id":18506,"date":"2020-10-31T12:46:49","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T16:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=18506"},"modified":"2020-10-31T12:46:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T16:46:49","slug":"leatherback-turtle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2020\/10\/31\/leatherback-turtle\/","title":{"rendered":"Curious Leatherback Turtle Returns To Peabody Essex After 2 Decades In Storage"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, the old leatherback turtle lurked large and curious in a dim corner of the Peabody Essex Museum\u2019s natural history galleries, displayed in one of the few places the sizable beast would fit.<\/p>\n

A Mr. Parsons \u201ccaught it off Rockport live and then gave it to the museum\u201d in 1885, explains Janey Winchell, director of the museum’s Art & Nature Center. \u201cIt was 750 pounds. They get up to 1,500 pounds. It was 76 inches long when they brought it in. So a good-sized turtle.\u201d<\/p>\n

It went on view at the Salem museum shortly thereafter \u201cand stayed on view until we took it down\u201d in 2002 as part of \u201creimagining the natural history galleries.\u201d Which became the Art & Nature Center that debuted with the museum\u2019s 2003 expansion. Now, after nearly two decades in storage, the leatherback turtle is back on view in the exhibition “Salem Stories” at the museum from Sept. 26, 2020, to Oct. 3, 2021.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of requests for the leatherback turtle. People missed it,” Winchell says. “The story of it dripping oil added to the romantic quality of the object, the specimen.\u201d Dripping oil? We’ll get to that in a moment.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Peabody Essex Museum’s leatherback turtle, 2020. (Photo: Kathy Tarantola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The turtle is one of the highlights of a natural history collection devoted to documenting the wildlife of Essex County along Boston\u2019s north shore. Winchell says, \u201cThe value of the collection is indisputable, especially as a record of what has lived in the region, the diversity, before climate change. These document the time of flowers and species of insects that either don\u2019t occur now or are very rare when they were common.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leatherback turtle “has been this beloved object and I think part of that is because it was on view for all those generations of visitors,\u201d Winchell says. But it wasn\u2019t just that so many people had seen the leatherback turtle over the years, it was the turtle\u2019s majestic weirdness. Leatherback turtles are considered the largest sea turtle\u2014for comparison, this one arrived half-again heavier than Myrtle, the 90-year-old, 500-pound green sea turtle that is the star of the New England Aquarium’s Giant Ocean Tank in Boston. The Peabody Essex’s specimen measured more than 6 feet tall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has this shiny surface and doesn\u2019t look like what you\u2019d think of as a sea turtle because it doesn\u2019t have a visible shell,\u201d Winchell says. And,\u00a0memorably, \u201cfor quite a long time it had a reputation for dripping oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oil is not something we applied to the object. This is how they survived in the cold weather. They have a sort of blubber layer \u2026 to thermoregulate in colder ocean waters,” Winchell says. “It\u2019s unique among sea turtles in being able to maintain a warm body temperature. … They can migrate into the North Atlantic where other turtles can\u2019t survive. They\u2019ve been found off Newfoundland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe case was specifically designed for the turtle so the oil could be collected discretely underneath,\u201d Winchell says. The oil would naturally channel down to the turtle\u2019s tail, then drip into a hole in the case into a metal container hidden below, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt dripped oil for over 100 years, certainly,\u201d Winchell says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not still dripping oil,\u201d Winchell notes. Because the museum is keeping the carcass cooler now. \u201cIt was only in the summer when it wasn\u2019t climate controlled,\u201d she says. \u201cIt would get over 80 degrees and when it started to get over 80 degrees it would start to drip.\u201d The effect was so predictable, she says, that \u201cI could measure the temperature by if it was dripping oil.”<\/p>\n

But if you’re intrigued by the tale, keep an eye out for a little bottle next to the giant turtle. Inside is some of the collected oil.<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2020 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Leatherback<\/a>
Leatherback turtle reinstalled at Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum, 2020. (Photo: Kathy Tarantola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Leatherback<\/a>
Leatherback turtle being reinstalled at Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum, 2020. (Photo: Kathy Tarantola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Leatherback<\/a>
Leatherback turtle being reinstalled at Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum, 2020. (Photo: Kathy Tarantola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Janey<\/a>
Janey Winchell, director of the Peabody Essex Museum’s Art & Nature Center, with the leatherback turtle, 2020. (Photo: Kathy Tarantola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For decades, the old leatherback turtle lurked large and curious in a dim corner of the Peabody Essex Museum\u2019s natural history galleries, displayed in one of the few places the sizable beast would fit. A Mr. Parsons \u201ccaught it off Rockport live and then gave it to the museum\u201d in 1885, explains Janey Winchell, director […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[47,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18506"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18525,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18506\/revisions\/18525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}